[9]

Jeff Goldblum (Silverado, The Big Chill) plays an inventor who creates teleportation pods that can molecularly deconstruct matter from one location and reconstitute it in another. After he uses himself as a test subject, he’s elated by the strength and confidence he feels — but then strange things start happening to his body. Course hairs grow out of a wound on his back. He gets really strong — strong enough to break the bones of a man he arm wrestles (one of the first shocking scenes). Then his teeth and fingernails start falling out and then he gets a really nasty skin condition. When he goes back into his computer’s memory to learn what may have gone wrong, he discovers he was not alone in the pod when he teleported himself. A common house fly was with him. And in it’s infinite wisdom, the computer genetically spliced them together.

David Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly is a ‘body horror’ masterpiece so viscerally and emotionally upsetting, it’s rare that I’m ever in the mood to rewatch it. I doubt a direct adaptation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis could be any more disturbing, especially when Goldblum starts regurgitating on his food and sucking it up. And especially when that food is another man’s leg. And especially when that man is still alive. Or when Geena Davis (Tootsie, The Accidental Tourist), Goldblums co-star and romantic interest in the film, gives birth to a giant, squirming maggot.

Cronenberg marries a compelling, psychological chamber drama with a bounty of gore and special effects that are guaranteed to haunt your memories. Goldblum and Davis both give award-worthy performances as lovers torn apart by Goldblum’s hideous physical and mental transformation. The film benefits tremendously from the nightmarish makeup and special effects by Chris Walas (Gremlins) and Howard Shore’s mournful and bombastic score.

With John Gets and Joy Boushel.

Academy Award: Best Makeup (Chris Walas, Stephan Dupuis)